Andrew tapped on the manual, immediately downloading it to his device.
The body tempering technique was named "Body Cleansing Art", the summary described it cleaned the body of impurities, leading to a change in the quality of the substrate.
Andrew knew that this was gonna be his "ticket", it would make due for hiding the origin of his abilities.
The art described a very specific way at manipulating your innate internal energy to push impurities out of the body through the skin.
It was simple to start, but very few people had properly mastered it.
Training this technique to mastery would allow one to almost freely manipulate innate energy.
It was a step below Qi, but it was highly foundational.
Innate energy lived within every cell of the body.
Upon doing what looked to be very standard radio yoga positions, one would soon find themselves feeling very hot.
Andrew quickly read through the manual and put it aside.
He got down on the floor.
He quickly started to hit the described poses.
He was glad he lived alone because if anyone he knew saw what he was doing, they might think that he was a bit of a exhibitionist.
"In order to not ruin my clothes, i gotta strip naked during this, the impurities are said to be extremely disgusting..."
Andrew right now was butt ass naked doing very... explicit positions.
After about an hour and a half of doing shameful things, he was surprised to find that he actually felt a little exhausted.
Compared to actually doing his normal routine this was a lake compared to an ocean of suffering.
He also noticed a thin glazing of what looked to be black sludge that appeared on his skin.
it smelled absolutely rancid and he immediately went to go take a shower.
Andrew sat in the water, with some random thoughts passing through his head.
He couldn't help but enjoy the shower thoughts for a bit.
"If a black hole sucks in all light, then how do we know if it's actually black or just devoid of any color?"
"If you weigh 99 lbs but then eat a pound of nachos, would you technically weigh 1 percent nacho?"
"If two vegans argue, would it still be considered beef?"
....
Stepping out of the shower, Andrew walked over to his mirror.
He noticed there was definitely a very slight change in skin texture and brightness.
He got a little paler, a little more crystalline, and even his eyes appeared a bit lighter.
"I guess it won't be long until I end up looking like those rich kids from school, this was definitely the right move."
It was currently about 6 o'clock, he thought about going to the park for an hour or so and cranking out a quick workout.
Getting dressed, Andrew decided on it just to waste some time and use some more energy.
He wanted to get good sleep tonight to be energized for tomorrow's placement test.
If he wasn't mistaken, it was just to check what their stats were looking like.
In this way, they could give an accurate assessment of which class is best suited for them.
if you have good stats but a poor talent, you'd probably get placed in the general martial arts class, but you would still be forced into academic studies.
If you had poor stats but a solid talent, you'd get placed in all martial arts curricula.
But you would start at the mid or basic grade classes, with them moving you up when your stats met the minimum requirements for the higher class.
Leaving his apartment, Andrew jogged down the street feeling looser than he had in a while.
He already had solid mobility, but with the talent and his new technique, the micro amounts of scar tissue he couldn't avoid seemed to dissolve.
Feeling good, Andrew arrived at the park, where he said hello to the old man sitting under the tree meditating, before grabbing a bigger rock this time to begin his work.
He had seen this old man a few times before.
Occasionally he would be meditating under the biggest tree in the park.
It was the same thing day in and day out.
But as Andrew was doing his training, he saw a familiar figure out the corner of his eye…
"No way, is that who I think it is?"
Andrew squinted, rubbing his eyes before he realized it was in fact who he thought it was.
"It's definitely Zachary, I didn't expect he'd also be starting training this early. The protagonist really can't afford any days off…."
Andrew suddenly felt he would have to spend a little more than an hour here.
However, he was quite intrigued by what Zachary was doing.
His training technique looked very interesting.
Zachary was holding a wooden stick like a sword, swinging it gently, yet with speed and precision.
His moves were getting progressively more fluent.
"It's like he's getting better every 3 swings… he must truly be blessed by the heavens."
"It almost feels like I'm in some cheesy cultivation novel…"
Just as Andrew was thinking this, he spotted the old man who would frequently meditate stand up as if he sensed something, before walking over to Zachary.
"Damn, this really is too similar to a cheesy novel with plot holes... this old man is probably some kind of hidden expert, looking to take on a new disciple."
He laughed thinking of his, but there was a bit of a pit in his stomache.
In a way he felt a little outdone, even though he knew he was probably stronger than Zachary right now.
Andrew used his enhanced senses from the talent and closed his eyes, trying to listen in on what was being said.
He was only about 30 feet away from the both of them, close enough he could somewhat hear their conversation.
"You have a remarkable talent for the sword young man, you remind me of myself when I was your age…" the old man spoke to Zachary.
Zachary paused what he was doing, "Thanks, I just recently started learning this past week."
He didn't want to expose he had actually just started today.
"Quite remarkable indeed… how about this kid—become my disciple."
Zachary was slightly surprised, he didn't expect yet another fortuitous encounter this soon.
He had awoken a talent with god level potential, while also gaining a master of unknown origins…
And now he had the opportunity to gain more resources!
He showed hesitancy though, unsure what his actual master would think of this.
"Go for it, this person is probably one of the strongest in the city, he's a peak foundation establishment… an ant in my eyes but you'll outgrow him much sooner than you think."
His nervousness dissipated immediately upon hearing his master's words.
"Yes, I'm gladly willing, master!" Zachary said aloud, bowing out of respect.
Not too far away, Andrew was hearing this scene.
"This is absolutely ridiculous, I gotta stop listening before I get pissed off…"
A single tear fell down his face as he began speeding up his reps.
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